As the popularity level and the amount of content on the Internet has grown so has the demand for greater bandwidth for the home user. Since conventional analog modems have nearly reached their physical limitations, other transmission methods, such as Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), and cable modems have begun to emerge as alternatives with greater bandwidth than a single analog modem. However, due to the significantly higher costs and limited availability of these options, analog modem manufacturers and Internet Service Providers (ISP) have started employing bonding schemes, in which two or more analog modems are used over a corresponding number of analog phone lines to multiply the bandwidth for a single network connection. This results in a significant increase in bandwidth at a relatively low cost to the consumer and ISP.
An example of a known configuration for a bonding scheme is shown in FIG. 1. Computer terminal 101 connects through the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) 102 to an ISP 103 using bonded phone lines 104 and 105. Phones 106 and 107 at the same facility as the computer terminal also use lines 104 and 105 to make voice and or fax calls.
Protocols for implementing these bonding schemes already exist. Specifically, Bandwidth Allocation Control Protocol (BACP) and Multichannel Protocol Plus (MP+) manage the links, in this case phone lines, which make up the network connection and allow for individual links to be added and dropped as needed without affecting the other links.
A problem with these bonding schemes is that the use of the additional phone lines for data transmission prevents voice or fax calls from being placed or received on those lines. When computer 101 is using lines 104 and 105 for data transmission, phones 106 and 107 can neither make nor receive calls.
A technology known as "Shotgun" used by Diamond Multimedia allows a user to manually add and release the second phone line of the bonded pair. This manual operation is accomplished at the computer terminal with which the bonding scheme is being used. "Shotgun" also allows incoming calls on lines equipped with call waiting technology. When a call waiting signal is transmitted from the PSTN on the second phone line of the bonded pair, that line is automatically released from the bonding scheme so that the call may ring through while the data transmission continues on the first line. However, this approach has several shortcomings in that it does not allow an individual to choose to ignore an incoming call, it requires that call waiting service be subscribed to on the phone line to service incoming calls, and to make an outgoing call it requires an individual to manually release the second voice line at the computer terminal.
Technology already exists to intercept incoming calls on a phone line that an individual is using for a data connection, to notify the individual that there is an incoming call, and to allow the individual to elect how to handle the call. This technology is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,805,587, CALL NOTIFICATION FEATURE FOR A TELEPHONE LINE CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET, issued Sep. 8, 1998. This approach has shortcomings in that it does not allow an individual to maintain separate voice and data connections, nor does it allow an individual to make outgoing calls.